The Prophecy of Four
Chapter 1 Moonglow sat on her bed in her tower, in the NightWing Kingdom, bored out of her mind. And that was saying something. Being a mind reader meant she was almost never alone in her mind. Not literally, of course. A mind-reader actually being able to talk to another dragon through her mind? Ridiculous. It did help having a skyfire bracelet on. Skyfire blocked her mind-reading powers, and she took it off when she wanted to. Then there was a small noise, like scratching. Most dragons would probably ignore it, but Moonglow knew what this was. She poked her head out her window. “Stop it, Hibiscus.” The young RainWing, scales a mix of pink, yellow, and purple like always, looked up innocently, hiding the rock behind her back. “What?” Hibiscus asked, mocking confusion. “You know what,” Moon glared down. “I told you to stop trying to draw on my tower. It's not going to work.” Hibiscus looked sad. Moonglow rolled her eyes. “Don't act like you're surprised. I've told you, what, at least ten times now.” Hibiscus smiled. “Oh, I knew it wasn't gonna work. It was only a distraction,” the RainWing said brightly. “Well in that case-” Moonglow started, then paused. “Wait, what?” Then she yelped, tumbling forwards, and landed with a flump into the bushes. Moonglow got up and shook herself off, glaring up at her window, and the head of the dragon poking out of it. “Hello!” the dragon said cheerfully, as if nothing had happened remotely out of the ordinary. Like, maybe a dragon getting pushed out of a window or something. "Really, guys?” Moon asked angrily. Stargazer laughed, jumping out of the window to land in the grass. “Yep!” Hibiscus agreed. “Really,” Stargazer said, grinning. Moonglow rolled her eyes. The NightWing princess had black scales, with dark green underscales. Her spikes and horns were silver. There was the silver teardrop scale next to her emerald green eyes like all mind-readers had. Moonglow's underwings were black like most NightWings, but the scales flecking them were purple, not silver. Moonglow didn't really consider beauty as a defining feature, as prettiness wouldn't win her any battles, but she knew some of the other NightWings gave her looks when she passed by them. Stargazer grinned at her. His black scales glittered in the sun of the afternoon. The hybrid's light blue underscales matched his long spikes and horns, and there was a black row of scales separating his underscales from the dark blue scales that ran down his back. His underwings were a dark aqua color, with no star scales, and his eyes were turquoise. “What do you two want? Aside from very rudely interrupting me. And, oh yeah, PUSHING ME OUT OF MY TOWER,” Moonglow demanded. Stargazer nodded apologetically at Moonglow. “We've been worried about you. Holed up in your tower. You need fresh air and sunshine,” he said. Moonglow frowned. “I'm fine! I like being in my tower! And being NOT PUSHED OUT OF IT,” she said. Hibiscus laughed. “''Suuuuure.'' Besides, Queen Galaxy needs you. She sent Stargazer and I to convince you to come. Today's the Council, remember?” the RainWing asked. “That's not how it happened. Queen Galaxy sent me to get her. You just snuck along,” Stargazer corrected. “Not true!” Hibiscus protested. Moonglow sighed, tuning her friends voices out. The Council was the meeting of all of the queens for the seven tribes. They happened at the end of every three months. It was made as a sort of peace agreement, so that way the queens could discuss important matters safely. The place the Council was held rotated each time, so it was fair for all tribes. This Council must be the NightWing's turn. Most of the meetings, although met under a peace-treaty, ended in all of the queen's ignoring each other, so Moonglow really didn't see the point. But, as the future queen, Moonglow had to attend. The only good part about the Councils, in her opinion, was that she could see her friends. She saw Stargazer more often then not, but Hibiscus lived in the rain-forest. Continuing to ignore Stargazer and Hibiscus's argument about which one of them Queen Galaxy trusted more, Moonglow looked around. She had the unsettling feeling she was being watched. Seeing no other dragons around aside from Star and Hibiscus, Moon shook her head. I'm imagining things, ''she told herself. Stargazer and Hibiscus paused their argument and looked at Moon worriedly. “You okay?” Hibiscus asked her. Moon took a deep breath, and turned back to face her friends. “Yes,” she told them. “I'm fine.” Stargazer smiled. “Great! Now come on, we don't want to be late,” the hybrid said, and started walking. Moon and Hibiscus followed close behind. None of the three dragons noticed the pair of bright blue eyes staring out from the shadows of the pile of rocks that made up what Hibiscus called “Howling Hill” because she liked to howl on it at night. (Stargazer had suggested helpfully to name it, “Pile of Rocks” because “It looks like a pile of rocks.” Then Hibiscus had dropped pebbles on his head until Star got annoyed and made a snowball out of his IceWing freezing-death-breath. He threw it at her, and it hit Hibiscus right in the snout. Everything pretty much had gone downhill from there.) ''But the pair of glowing eyes had no intention of playing a game of ''Snowball ALL the things! The eyes vanished, and didn't reappear. The only trace of them ever being there was the small red puddle left half-hidden in the shadows. The small red puddle of blood.'' Chapter 2 The Council was held in the meeting plaza of the Night Kingdom. Each of the queens got a large(ish) raised platform, and three smaller ones. The three smaller ones were for princes and princesses. (Or in the RainWing's case, because they didn't really know who was related to who, the advisers or highly-regarded dragons.) Moonglow hurried to sit in one of the smaller cushioned platforms beside the NightWing section. The purple and silver NightWing who already sat on the large cushion was Queen Galaxy. “Finally,” Galaxy said quietly to Moonglow. “Sorry, Mother,” the princess apologized. Galaxy only sighed. Stargazer grinned at Moon from across the center of the plaza, sitting next to the white IceWing queen, Queen Seal. Two other IceWings, Polar and Frost, were already there, and gave their brother disapproving sniffs. Hibiscus was seated next to a large, vibrant pink RainWing. That was Queen Hummingbird. The other two RainWings were Nectar (who was orange at the moment), and Banana (who was yellow). Next to Moon were two NightWings. Moonglow smiled at them. Only her brother smiled back. Scrollwriter was dark purple, with silver underscales and underwings. His spikes and horns were gold for some reason that no one could explain, as no one he was related to had any gold scales, and his eyes were green, like Moon and Galaxy's. Scroll lacked the silver mind-reading scales, which he didn't mind, as he wanted to be a librarian. Moon glanced at Eclipse, her little sister. The small, shy NightWing sat quietly, her wings pressed against her sides and her tail curled around her claws. Eclipse's scales were black, and her underscales were dark blue. Her spikes and horns were silver, and her underwings were a swirling space-like pattern with purple, blue, and silver. She had the silver teardrop scales next to her dark blue eyes, like all mind-reading NightWings had, although as far as any of them could tell, she had no such power. “What's wrong?” Moon whispered to the NightWing. “Nothing,” Eclipse whispered back. “I know it isn't just nothing. You look like you've seen a ghost,” Moon joked quietly, trying to at least lift Eclipse's spirits just a bit. But Eclipse only looked at Moon. "I think maybe I have,” she replied cryptically. Moon didn't answer. Eclipse was shy, but smart. She knew ghosts weren't real. So why did she look so serious about it? “Now that everyone is present, may we start the Council?” Queen Lumina, the SeaWing queen, asked. Aquamarine, Platypus, and Crustacean, the SeaWing princess and princes, sat next to their queen. All were various shades of blue and turquoise, and some green. The SkyWing queen, Queen Crimson, nodded, as did the rest of the queens. Next to Queen Crimson was Adrenaline, Cloudless, and Fireball. Moon looked back at the Council. She'd have to make sure Eclipse was okay after it was finished. “As the resident queen of the Council location, I will speak first,” Queen Galaxy announced, to murmurs of agreement. “I am pleased to announce that the NightWings have their first animus in many years.” This was met with whispers of surprise. Moon blinked. An animus? “The NightWing animus...” Galaxy paused dramatically. She looked down at her daughter. All Moon could do was stare in disbelief. “is Princess Eclipse of the NightWings.” Chapter 3 Moon stared at her little sister. Animus? Eclipse sat up a bit straighter on her cushion, aware of all the eyes of the dragons in the Council on her. Although she acted (or at least tried to act) brave, Moon could see she was still trembling. “When was this discovered?” Queen Swan, the MudWing queen, asked. “A few nights ago,” Queen Galaxy announced proudly. “She's been showing signs powers for months now, but we got her officially tested yesterday.” Moon blinked, confused. Tested by who? Apparently Moon wasn't the only one thinking this, as Queen Wave asked, “The SeaWings have Aquamarine as our animus, Queen Crimson has Cloudless, Queen Swan has Heron, Queen Fennec has Scorpion, and Queen Hummingbird has yet to have one.” The RainWing queen glared at Queen Wave at this, but she ignored it and continued. “Who was Princess Eclipse tested by?” Queen Galaxy smiled, and nodded at Queen Seal, who sat up. “She was tested by the IceWing animus, Prince Stargazer,” the IceWing queen said, looking down at him. Star grinned. Moon looked down at her claws. Why couldn't she be an animus? That would be amazing... The rest of the Council went by, agonizingly slow. But finally, an hour later, it was done. Moonglow rushed down the steps to the middle of the plaza, Hibiscus, Stargazer, Scorpion the animus SandWing, Aquamarine the animus SeaWing, Heron the animus MudWing, and Cloudless the animus SkyWing already there. Eclipse shuffled after Moon, head low. “So this is the NightWing animus!” Scorpion exclaimed. The SandWing looked friendly enough, his poisonous tail curled up safely. “We have to remember the rules, though,” Heron said firmly. Cloudless rolled her eyes, but joined in as the rest of the animi recited, “New animi are friends, not food,” and then burst into laughter. Eclipse smiled, visibly relaxing. Hibiscus stood next to Moon. “We should go. The animi usually brief each other on what they've enchanted, how their soul is feeling, boring stuff like that,” she said to Moon. Moon didn't think that it was boring at all, but allowed herself to be led away by Hibiscus. She looked back enviously at Eclipse. Moonglow had never felt jealous at her little sister for anything before. Being the oldest daughter meant Moon got to be queen one day. But now...now Moon started feeling jealous. Why did her sister get to be an animus? Moon wanted to be in the animi meetings after the Council! “Let's go!” Hibiscus said to Moon. Moon, taking one last long look at the animi, nodded. "Coming,” she said, and followed Hibiscus away. Away from the animi. Away from her sister and her friend. But most of all, away from safety. Because the glowing eyes, and the dragon they belonged to, were watching. They always were. But for how much longer would they simply watch from the shadows? How much longer until they started actually getting involved? How much longer until the eyes started to kill?